Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/173

 The a va the Lite Chow a v. _ #69

on the northern fomie, The town itself is insignificant, but is thronged with busy multitudes on market days. Some of the people are rather rnde and lawless, these, no doubt, being importations from the lower districts, while the native peasantry are quiet and inoffensive. The high hills in this neighbourhood, with their rocky caverns: afford hiding-places for dangerous wild animals. Tigers and leopards are frequently met with, and several slain every year, their skins and flesh being exposed for sale in the market-place. The natives distinguish the great tiger by the marks on his forehead, which they say are in the form of the character Wong, “king,” being primd facie evidence of his kingship over the beasts. Small deer and mountain fowl abound. There are few, if any, among the people who make a business of hunting, there being ne convenient or profitable market for the products of the chase. When the lair of a tiger or leopard is known, a dozen men or more, with guns and spears, surround the place and surprise the creature, killing it with unnecessary barbarity, and often utterly spoiling the pelt by the numerous spear thrusts and bullet holes.

Behind Siu-kong stretches a semi-cylindrical valley, through which flows a small stream, and up which the road leads to Wong-fan and Sai-kong markets. In the hills along this valley are coal deposits, and mines are about to be, if not already, opened. The arrangements for opening them were completed at the beginning of last year, the only obstacle then in the way being the want of agreement between the prefect of Lien-chow and the district magistrate of Yenng-shan as to the division of the revenue accruing to them from the mines,